SUPPORT Stafford Hospital campaigners are urging patients forced to wait for hours at Royal Stoke’s A&E to have their say as it could help the fight to bring back Stafford’s 24/7 service.

Patients were forced to wait for hours in corridors or bays and ambulance crews were tied up outside Stoke and County hospitals over Christmas and new year as the chief executive apologised for the “third world” conditions.

Now Karen Howell, from Support Stafford, is asking people to share accounts of their experiences on the group’s Facebook page.

One resident Kim Louise Abbey-Hunter posted to say she arrived at stoke at 6.10pm on January 3 with her diabetic mum, went into triage at around 7pm, waited until 2am to have bloods done, 3am to see a doctor and 9am the next day for results. She said: “It was rammed, most corridors full with people with beds in.”

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And Claire Gledhill posted to say her relative, a cancer patient, was taken to Stoke by ambulance on December 11 at 10pm and there were 27 people in front who had arrived by ambulance and were lined up in corridors. She attended again with the same relative in the early hours of December 30. This time, waiting time was over four hours and 131 patients were already waiting. Seventeen hours after admission a bed was found.

Karen Howell said: “(Health Secretary) Jeremy Hunt came here before the 2015 election saying he would fight to get our 24-hour A&E reinstated and we warned that Stoke was not sufficient to cope. It has never reached the four-hour target.

“We think a national award should go to NHS staff for all their hard work. They have gone above and beyond the call of duty and are stressed out and pressured.”

Stafford MP Jeremy Lefroy said: “I have made the point time and again that an A&E at Stafford is very important.

“If there was any suggestion now about looking at reducing Staffordshire’s A&Es from three to two I would fundamentally oppose it.”